Methodology & Mathematical Engine
How Founder Archetype maps 36 situational tradeoffs to 12 vector coordinates without subjective personality tests or runtime AI.
1. Decisions, Not Traits
Standard personality evaluations (MBTI, Big Five, Enneagram) measure self-reported dispositional traits like "openness" or "agreeableness". For founders, these traits correlate weakly with company outcomes.
Every axis in this model represents a fork founders actually face: who do you believe, who funds you, who decides, how fast do you ship, and what happens when customers ask for custom work. There is no "good" pole. Every choice sacrifices a legitimate asset.
2. The Scoring Math & Vector Stretching
Each question is answered on a 1–5 scale. Questions are keyed with either positive orientation (+) or reverse scoring (−).
Real users cluster near the middle on Likert scales. Applying a 1.25 stretch factor prevents compressed profiles and preserves distinctiveness across the 12 axes.
3. Entity Alignment & Shape Similarity
Matching against the reference set of 64 companies and 64 founders utilizes salience-weighted Euclidean distance blended with centered cosine shape similarity:
Dimensions where you hold intense convictions carry up to 50% higher weight than those where you are neutral. Cosine similarity rewards identical profile shapes even if amplitude differs.
4. The 12 Canonical Axes
Where the truth about what to build comes from: the market’s feedback or the founder’s internal model of the future.
How much outcome variance you will accept in exchange for a higher ceiling.
Your relationship with outside money: dependency to be avoided, or a strategic weapon to be wielded.
The default speed of decisions and shipping when information is incomplete.
Where decision authority lives. Founder as the central node, or founder as the architect of a system that decides without them.
How much the quality and feel of the thing itself matters relative to shipping something useful.
What you believe actually causes growth: the product spreading itself, or distribution, relationships and sales.
The stance toward competitors and market structure.
The time scale over which you judge success and are willing to sacrifice.
What ultimately anchors the company: a market gap or a belief about how the world should be.
Whether your edge comes from solving unsolved problems or from executing known models better.
The intensity you expect from yourself and the company, and how you feel about its cost on people.
LEGAL & EDITORIAL DISCLOSURE
Founder Archetype is an entertainment and self-reflection tool about operating philosophy. It is not a psychological, clinical, or scientifically validated assessment.
Company and founder matches compare your answers to our editorial reading of each one’s publicly observable strategy and company-building choices. They are not claims about anyone’s private psychology, and no company or person is affiliated with or endorses this site.
Compatibility % is an alignment score, not a probability.